Warren Stephens keeps putting his money where his mouth is.
Florida newspaper company Halifax Media plans to close on its purchase of 20 newspapers in Florida and North Carolina by July 1.
A majority of Halifax is owned by Stephens’ Stephens Capital Partners of Little Rock,
Halifax Media of Daytona Beach has not disclosed financial details of the deal struck with Freedom Communications Inc. of Irvine, Calif.
The purchase of daily and weekly newspapers from Freedom Communications follows closely behind Halifax Media’s $143 million buy Jan. 6 of 16 community newspapers from the New York Times Co.
The 20 Freedom newspapers would bring Halifax Media’s holdings up to 37 papers.
“These properties provide a perfect extension to our recently acquired New York Times Regional Newspaper Group papers and reflect our interest in preserving community journalism for years to come,” Halifax CEO Michael Redding said in a news release.
Stephens Capital, Redding Investments of Daytona Beach and Jaarsss Media of Destin, Fla., are the investors behind Halifax Media.
“I’m a believer that local news, news that you aren’t going to find anywhere else, be it in Arkansas Business or be it in your local newspaper, is going to be of value to people and therefore of value to advertisers,” Stephens told Arkansas Business last month.
Stephens also owns newspaper company Stephens Media of Las Vegas with his cousins, Witt Stephens Jr. and Elizabeth Stephens Campbell. Other than Warren Stephens’ ownership interest in both, Stephens Media and Halifax Media are not connected.
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